100 Frames: Tropical Malady (2004)

Film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; text by Dennis Lim

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s acclaimed 2004 film is the subject of this issue’s “100 FRAMES” feature. Dennis Lim provides an introduction both to the filmmaker, whose work he describes as “prehistoric and postmodern, equal parts elemental myth and experimental provocation,” and to this sequence of contiguous frames, relating it to the broader context of Weerasethakul’s oeuvre.

Hailing from Bangkok, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul completed his first feature, the well-regarded documentary Mysterious Object at Noon (Dokfa nai meuman), in 2000. His 2002 film Blissfully Yours (Sud sanaeha) won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival, and his 2004 feature Tropical Malady (Sud pralad) was awarded the Cannes Jury Prize. Weerasethakul, who promotes independent Thai filmmaking through his Bangkok-based company Kick the Machine, is currently finishing his new feature Syndromes and a Century (Sang sattawat), to be released early next year.

Dennis Lim is the film editor of the Village Voice and the editor of the Village Voice Film Guide.